Women broke a glass-ceiling of sorts because as it turned out misogyny trumped a long list of horribles to overcome in the 2016 election of Donald Trump to office of President of the United States. Thinly disguised? No full force, thick with contempt , women showed up to vote for a slob born to money with a taste for money and no taste, a sexist, racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, et cetera-phobia, these characteristics in full display slid right off the Teflon Cheeto.¹

If exit polls are to be believed, 53% of the misogynist vote was supplied by … wait for it …

Women. And not just any women. White women. My demographic.

And so I wonder was this vote specific to Hillary? Was this vote in protest of the Clinton political machine? Would the same distaste for a female president have been generated by Elizabeth Warren? Or can this vote be generalized to any woman no matter her experience in politics?

I would like to believe that the vote was specific to Hillary. An old GOP-er businessman told me back in the day that Bill Clinton would win over George H.W. Bush because women vote for the man they’d sleep with. And Bill was way more charismatic than George. But maybe in 2016, the vote that turned out for Bill back in 1992 decided it’s time to punish Bill the serial cheater we slept with all those years ago. 2017: the year to punish Bill. For Hillary. A vote for Trump was a proxy vote against Bill. We support Hillary. Just not for President.

And Hillary had e-mails.
And Benghazi.
And eye-rolling at Senators.
And a basket of deplorables.
And a lackluster campaign .
And a electoral orienteering map that did not include swing states and woo for the deplorables.
Did I mention Bill? This is also a long list.

Hillary Clinton had all that baggage, but I’m still going to go with the other explanation. This vote, the 53% — and let’s face it, a small percent of the 53% are lifelong registered GOP-ers that will run out and vote for any name identified as an (R), we’ll give that league of troubled women voters a pass for now, they are doing what they’ve always done — but the remainder couldn’t stand to vote for the experienced Democrat who happened to be a woman with steamer trunks full of who-knows-what baggage in tow. They couldn’t stand to just stay home and sit this one out.

And now they claim ‘I can’t be bothered with the latest tweet, the latest horror. I’m not political.’

Then why, why pray tell, did you vote?

And I return to bedtime and sleep.

That majority of the 53% were able to work past issues of sexual assault and harassment, multiple marriages, multiple bankruptcies, mocking disabled reporters, encouraging violence against dissenters — ugh, behaviors unbecoming a leader let alone the POTUS — to cast a vote against … themselves. They went to the polls with the certainty that they would sleep better with a sentient Cheeto² and his twitchy Twitter fingers³ governing than to trust someone who might look a little bit too much like them. Someone who in her steamer trunks full of baggage has a mirror that reflects their problems, their insecurities, their lack of charisma and charm right back at them. Hillary looked tired, haggard and when we look in the mirror, so do we. We want her to hang up her pantsuits because so do we. We couldn’t tolerate a woman at the top when we’ve been beaten down for so long. So the message was sent and delivered. Not yet, Hillary. Not yet.

Misogyny. We are woman. We hate ourselves. We are strong misunderstood, misrepresented, and underrepresented. We are afraid. Until we learn to embrace our otherness, misogyny rules the day and it may be a while, but I hope we wake up from this nightmare.

We just might find out we’re capable, creative, honest, fair, humane.

It’s a long list.

¹ Teflon Cheeto. I don’t recall seeing Prescedense Trump referred to as the Teflon Cheeto before. If I’m the first, I sincerely wish I weren’t.

² Sentient Cheeto. I have seen Prescedense described this way on multiple sites. I do not know who to credit and I do not want to take credit. So there.

³ Twitchy Twitter fingers — see footnote number 2. Also, is any publicity good publicity for Cheetos? Asking for Frito-Lay.